Visakhapatnam: Government Whip Dronamraju Srinivas and Municipal Commissioner MV Satyanarayana jointly laid the stone for modernisation works of Indira Priyadarsini Municipal Grounds to be taken up at a cost of Rs 4.5 crore here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Srinivas said that the Central Industrial Security Force office which was housed in the stadium for long was shifted to another place paving way to take up modernisation works only after he, along with the Municipal Commissioner and the Collector V Seshadri apprised the Chief Minister about the need for the stadium.

He said for water and electrical works, the Vuda has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1.5 crore while the GVMC sanctioned Rs 3 crore for other works in the stadium. The Civic Chief has asked the staff concerned to complete the works at the earliest. Among others, south zone in-charge commissioner Viswanatham, ADC (Projects) Ramesh, CE Jayaram Reddy, EE Krishna Rao, DE Koteswara Rao, Deputy DEs Kalidas and Krishnakumar, GVMC Sports Director Y Srinivasa Rao, ADH Balaarama Krishna and Chief Medical Officer Dr Ramana Murty attended.

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC)'s ambitious central city underground drainage (CCUGD) project is proving to be a major stinker. Not only about Rs 200 crore of public money has literally gone down the drain, the project is nowhere near completion.

Five years after the GVMC embarked on the Rs 243.71 crore project that was to cover 750 kms in the central city area under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in November 2007, the project that was to be completed by November 2010 is lying incomplete.

So far, only the trunk line (central drainage) works have been completed in some areas but the connections from the houses to the trunk line are yet to be made in parts of the city. In fact, not much has moved ahead in the project even in the last one year.

While responding to an RTI query on the progress of the project, the GVMC had on December 26, 2011, replied that nearly 75% of works were completed. When enquired about the present progress, GVMC commissioner, MV Satyannarayana told TOI said that only 75% of the CCUGD works have been completed till date.

Admitting to the snail's pace of the project works, the civic chief maintained that all possible efforts were being made to complete it by June 2013. A high level technical committee would be shortly arriving from Hyderabad to examine the project because the works done so far had failed in quality and durability assessments, Satyannarayana admitted. He, however, pointed out that a similar project costing Rs 37.08 crore had been completed in the old city limits.

Citizens residing near to the ongoing CCUGD works said that the workers concerned did not properly restore the roads to their original state after finishing the digging works. "The roads have not been properly restored after finishing the UGD works. This has resulted in increasing inconvenience to vehicular movement apart from dust pollution. We are ready to give our feedback on the project to any person at any time," said P Madhava Rao, a resident of Dwarakanagar.

Even as it is struggling to complete this project, GVMC is learnt to be planning to take up a larger UGD project at Gajuwaka and other 32 peripheral villages. "We plan to take up the project under JNNURM Plus scheme. We have already sent a detailed report on the project, which is estimated to cost of Rs 500 crore. The JNNURM Plus works are likely to begin in March 2013," Satyannarayana said.

RTI activist Srinivasu, said they would soon be conducting a public audit on the progress of all projects including CCUGD and housing projects being taken up by GVMC.

"We will probably conduct area wise public audit on the GVMC projects from January next year. We would submit the audit report to the government, both state and Centre," Srinivasu said.

At present, Vizag port has a handling capacity of 66 mn tonnes, which it is aiming to enhance to 140 mn tonnes by upgrading its facilities

To increase its cargo handling capacity, Visakhapatnam port is in the process of finalising three projects under the public-private partnership mode with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore, said Ajeya Kallam, chairman, Vizag port.

Various companies have submitted their bids and by March, the port would finalise the companies, he said. The projects would be ready by 2015-16.

Kallam was making a presentation on port developments in East Coast at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here.
At present, Vizag port has a handling capacity of 66 million tonnes, which it is aiming to enhance to 140 million tonnes by upgrading and modernising its facilities. “Of the nine projects, we have already taken up six under the PPP mode with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore,” he said.

Apart from the PPP projects, the port is investing Rs 300 crore in dredging works and also investing in improving the road and rail network for fast evacuation of cargo, according to him.

BK Singh, special secretary, investment and infrastructure department, said the Andhra Pradesh government was keen on roping in private investors for modernising the non-major ports in the state. “We have 14 non-major ports in the state, of which only five are operational. The government is keen on developing the other ports with private participation,” he added.

The ports in the state together have a handling capacity of 85 million tonnes, which the government is targeting to increase to 200 million tonnes by 2020, he said.

VISAKHAPATNAM: The proposed ground works for the desalination project would be started soon with the team of officials that is on a study tour to Singapore and Dubai expected to submit a detailed project report shortly, said Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) commissioner, MV Satyannarayana. Interacting with media persons in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, the civic chief expressed hope that the water problems of Vizagites as well as industrial sectors would be resolved soon with the implementation of this project.

"There is a huge gap between demand and supply of water in Vizag. The project team is currently touring Singapore and Dubai and GVMC will soon start the ground works of the project," Satyannarayana announced. AP Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organization (APITCO) has been entrusted the task of studying the project in the two countries. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 800 crore and will help GVMC get nearly 22 million gallons per day (MGD) of water after it comes into implementation, the commissioner said, adding that GVMC is currently facing a water shortage of around 20 MGD. Desalination is nothing but removal of salt (sodium chloride) and other minerals from sea water to make it suitable for human consumption and for industrial purpose. The GVMC is presently in the process of acquiring nearly 100 acres to launch the project.

While talking about other development works and future plans of GVMC, he said the corporation had successfully completed 14 projects under JNNURM by spending Rs 752.79 crore against the target of 21 projects at a cost of Rs 2084.76 crore since 2005.

The remaining projects would be completed by end of this financial year, he said, while assuring that the Rs 453 crore bus rapid transit system (BRTS) project would be completed by June, 2013. On other hand, the GVMC proposed 14 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 8723 crore under JNNURM Plus including a flyover at Gopalapatnam, construction of 60,000 houses under Rajiv Aawas Yojana (RAY) scheme and development of Lawson's Bay beach at a cost of Rs 13 crore.

Visakhapatnam: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), is planning to set up a biogas plant for effective management of solid waste and to generate electric power on an experimental basis.

As per the plan, initially the GVMC staff would experiment on generating 100 cubic metres of biogas from 2 tonnes of organic waste generated from kitchens.

Around 80 streetlights can be lit with the electric power generated from the biogas by using 15 to 18 KW capacity power generators. As of now daily around 800 to 1,000 tonnes of waste is being generated in various segments. Especially, domestic was-te from kitchens is being collected, by an outsourcing firm, and segregated and then composted.

“Around 98 per cent of the food and vegetable waste from household kitchens and rythubazars can be used to generate biogas from which electric power can be generated. As of now we have plans to set up a small bio gas plant. If it proves to be a success, Vizag can have more such plants that can be used by GVMC for its varied uses,” said the consultant appointed by GVMC, Suresh Bandari.

Depending on the experiment more biogas plants would be set up. A standing committee of the GVMC earlier visited Bruhath Banglore Maha Palika (BBMP) where 8MW of electric power is generated from 800MT of waste with biogas plants in 24 wards spread across the city.

By the year-end, the city will have a state-of-the-art plug-and-play IT Incubation Centre, said Minister for Information Technology and Communication Ponnala Lakshmaiah while laying the foundation stone for the 50,000 sft centre being built by the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation at Rushikonda here on Wednesday. The Minister promised to offer a host of incentives including concessional or free bandwidth connectivity.

The building, expected to be ready in eight months, would conform to the Gold Standard of the Green Building Council.

The Green Technology branding would also help the occupants attract clients, the Minister explained. The second incubation centre planned by IT&C Department would be in the city centre, he said. The government was willing to support the VUDA to build an IT Tower if it did not want to alienate the land to the Department or the APIIC, he said.

Pointing out that this was the government’s first IT Incubation Centre, he said that IT industry was the fastest in creating employment opportunities and that was in line with the government’s avowed aim of creating employment opportunities for the youth.

He scotched rumours that IBM was exiting from the city and urged everyone not to get carried away by rumours. WIPRO too was aiming at expanding its presence in the city, he said.

IT Park

Taking note of the issues plaguing the Rushikonda IT Park, the Minister assured that a free shuttle service would be run by the APIIC and the streetlights would be improved. The police had been directed to increase their patrolling in the area. The bad roads and poor infrastructure in the area was due to lack of coordination between different government departments, he lamented. The government was planning to set up incubation centres in Tirupati, Warangal, and Kakinada in its bid to encourage IT industry in Tier-II cities.

The government was already spending Rs. 50 lakh on incubation centre in engineering colleges, he added.

During the visit, Mr. Deora was taken for a terminal visit including a sky ride (lifting with crane up to a height of 30 metre) to have an aerial view of the entire Outer Harbour of Visakhapatnam Port. Mr. Kallam briefed the Minister about the proposed expansion plans of Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT).

Capt. Sriram updated latest trends in the container trade, its growth on the East Coast with reference to Visakhapatnam Port.

He also appraised the Minister about the potential of Visakhapatnam as a major transhipment hub.

During the discussions issues such as relaxation of cabotage policy and route rationalisation policy of railways figured prominently to boost Exim trade.

Mr. Deora opined that Visakhapatnam was going to play a key role in the maritime trade of the country in the days to come and promised all support from the government to make Visakhapatnam a hub port.

VISAKHAPATNAM: To ensure safety and security of each and every record, the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) has decided to set up a room for records enabled with advanced technology at the third floor of its office at Siripuram, here.

In a meeting on Thursday, Vuda vice chairman Kona Sasidhar told the engineering staff to provide fool proof security to the room including fire safety norms. Provision of emergency exits should also be taken care off, he added.

The engineers were further directed to ensure safety from electric short circuits and other unforeseen incidents since the record room would be housing the important files of the administration as well as activities.

Initial investment will be around Rs 300 crore for the basic infrastructure development

Hyderabad-based healthcare chain Care Hospitals is planning to open two hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Vizag over the next two years.

Care will open a 200-bedded hospital in Bhubaneswar and a 250-bedded hospital in Vizag over the next two years, CARE Hospitals chairman and managing director B Soma Raju said. Along with, Care has also plans to set up a 250-bedded hospital in Hyderabad at Gachibowli.

"The initial investment will be around Rs 300 crore for the basic infrastructure development. The expense may go upto Rs 500 crore depending upon inflation and additional requirement," he said.
Care had raised $105 million (Rs 534 crore) last calendar year from US-based private equity major Advent International. "The investment will be done from Advent's money," he said.

This is part of Care's proposed expansion plans to double its beds capacity to 3,500, set up five new greenfield hospitals and a Rs 35-crore daycare Centre of Excellence over the next two years. Currently, Care has 12 hospitals, including four in Hyderabad.

VISAKHAPATNAM, JAN. 19:
ABG-LDA Bulk Handling Pvt Ltd , a bulk cargo handler, has taken up two major projects at the Visakhapatnam port, one of which is scheduled for completion by end-2014.

Gurpreet Malhi, the CEO of the company, said this on the occasion of achieving financial closure for the fertiliser berth project, estimated to cost Rs 310 crore. The project is being funded by a consortium of four banks headed by the SBH.

He said it would take two years to execute the mechanised berth project which would vastly improve the operational efficiency and reduce pollution at the port, as it would obviate the need for multiple handling.

“Vizag Agriport Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between ABG-LDA and IL&FS Maritime, has taken up the project, with a capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum. We are confident of commissioning it ahead of schedule, sometime towards the end of 2014,” he said.

Referring to the other major project, a multi-cargo mechanised berth currently under execution by the ABG, he said it would be ready for commissioning by the end of December. “The berth, estimated to cost Rs 155 crore, is for handling steel, granite and other bulk cargoes. It will have a capacity of roughly 5 million tonnes per annum,” he said.

He said the company was also operating two cranes with a total capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum in the Visakhapatnam port and “after the completion of the two major projects on hand in Vizag port, our capacity in the port will rise to 15-16 million tonnes.”

Referring to other ports in the State, he said IL&FS Maritime had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh Government for setting up a 2.5 million tonne per annum LNG terminal and the project was still in the preliminary stages.

In his first visit after assuming charge, he saw the work on jogging track, cycling track, barefoot track, landscaping and other supporting amenities at the Kailasagiri Health Arena. Afterwards he visited the Row Housing at Rishikonda and saw the facilities atop Kailasagiri.

At the Telugu Cultural and Heritage Centre coming atop Kailasagiri, the Vice-Chairman interacted with the chairperson of World Telugu Federation V.L. Indira Dutt and Regional Chairman Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad. Dr. Yuvaraj was briefed by cine art director Thota Tarani on the episodes designed and being executed by him.

The Vice-Chairman told the heads of departments to look into the need for training and orientation to improve efficiency.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company have received an order for power plant at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The company has received order worth Rs 513.19 crore for design, engineering, processing, manufacturing, inspection, civil work, erection & commissioning for complete Balance of Plant Equipment (BOP) (total plant excluding boiler, turbine & generator) for 1X300 MW power plant at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The contractual delivery period is within 22 months.

Visakhapatnam: The collection of garbage in selected ten wards, in Visakhapatnam city, on pilot basis, has become a fruitful initiation for the solid waste management.

The GVMC is all set for collection of garbage, across the city, by setting up an exclusive end zone point from March 1, announced GVMC commissioner M.V. Satyanarayana on Tuesday.

Addressing the experts in solid waste management, at two-day workshop on “Appropriate solid waste management technology options for small and medium cities in India”, the commissioner added that the garbage collected at end zone point will be used to produce manure with sophisticated available technology.

On proposals in Indian cities to produce energy from solid waste, JNNURM Monitoring committee member, R.V. Rama Rao, stressed the need for a cluster approach among cities, in a bid to collect huge quantity of solid waste, before producing energy with technology support. The present availability of 55 million tonnes of garbage that is meant for producing energy could be increased if cluster approach is implemented in collaboration with cities, he added.

Realising that many Indian cities, including Vizag, are having its landfills very far from the city, experts mooted the need to identify the landfills as close as possible so that expenditure and deployment of staff can be minimised.

VISAKHAPATNAM, JAN. 25:
Forevermark, the diamond brand from De Beers group of companies, was launched here on Friday in association with Vaibhav Jewellers at the latter’s showroom.

Sachin Jain, the Managing Director of Forevermark India, said on the occasion that the brand promises quality, rarity and responsibility. “We are thrilled to tie up with Vaibhav to offer the best diamonds to the customers in Visakhapatnam,” he said.

Raghunathan of Vaibhav Jewellers, said the company believed in quality, craftsmanship, and customer service. “We are happy to partner with De Beers and we are offering fabulous designs,” he said.

Visakhapatnam: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is looking for the active involvement of people’s associations to develop parks in the city. The corporation encourages such organisations by providing suitable grants to maintain parks in the approved layouts where sites have been earmarked for recreational areas.

It may be recalled that anti-social elements and political bigwigs occupied most of these spots. The GVMC had failed to protect many vacant lands in the old layouts which had been approved way back and were gradually being converted into private parking lots and antisocial hangouts. Now there’s a new plan in place chalked out by the corporation, of involving neighbouring areas that would prevent unauthorised encroachment of such spots in the city.

According to officials, the corporation has woken up to the need to do something after many years and is now collecting detailed data on the current status of all such vacant plots in the city. So the GVMC came up with a plan to beautify parks in all wards. The corporation has 33 parks — big and small — within its limits. Various civil associations under PPP mode were maintaining another 86 parks. Observing the performance of the institutions, authorities are encouraging walkers’ associations and others to develop parks by providing matching grants.

A group of people belonging to the same area, having registered the name of the society/ association with the government, can propose a plan of action for developing and maintaining the local vacant place into a beautiful park for the needs of the local population. If they can accumulate some funds, the civic body would attach a matching grant at 1:2 ratio.

The interested group/association needs to prepare a tentative estimate and submit it to the corporation authorities for the grant. Officials will scrutinise the proposal, suggest some modifications if required and verify the bank account of the association for the status of funds collected locally. Then, they will release the grant and permit them to go ahead with the development works. The society can also collect user charges from the local population for the maintenance of the place.

These associations, in fact, plant saplings and help them grow and avoid misuse of lands. Housing societies can join the activity of ‘Green City’ plans by contributing to their locality’s park maintenance.

Now, officials are considering to constructing indoor stadiums in each ward.

Assistant director horticulture wing of the GVMC B. Balaramakrishna, said they have been receiving proposals from the interested associations in various layouts.

Hi Senthisenti.....Welcome to Vizag.......there are Two inox multiplexes in vizag....CMR central mall is there...Westside, Pantaloons, Central, Bigbazaar, and so many branded outlets...international fastfood joints like Pizza hut, KFC, Dominos, Subway and so many junk food centers, pubs, restaurents...roadside food...coming to transport there are RTC buses and sharing autos...good equipped cinema theaters are there but unfortunately we dont get tamil movies here...and vizag have a couple of beaches ...and tourist spots...and also hill station named araku (it has nick name as ANDHRA OOTY)....all in all vizag is the one of the most happening cities....we call it as CITY of DESTINY.....

Hi Senthisenti.....Welcome to Vizag.......there are Two inox multiplexes in vizag....CMR central mall is there...Westside, Pantaloons, Central, Bigbazaar, and so many branded outlets...international fastfood joints like Pizza hut, KFC, Dominos, Subway and so many junk food centers, pubs, restaurents...roadside food...coming to transport there are RTC buses and sharing autos...good equipped cinema theaters are there but unfortunately we dont get tamil movies here...and vizag have a couple of beaches ...and tourist spots...and also hill station named araku (it has nick name as ANDHRA OOTY)....all in all vizag is the one of the most happening cities....we call it as CITY of DESTINY.....

wow!!!! once again thanks for all the info... i'm waiting... tamil movies tats okie... how abt water... is there any kind of scarcity in the city... n rent charges in mansions r rented homes...

There is no water scarcity...rented homes it depends on the locality....if it is prime localities like Seethammadhara, MVP Colony 2 bed room flats u can get for around 8k-10k....there are places where u can get for 3k - 6k ....you said you are going to work with AIRCOSTA...so near to airport areas i think you can get less than 6k...about mansions...i dont have much info as i am living out of visakhapatnam from the past 10 years....here in andhra they call as P.G Accommodation....